Saturday, September 29, 2012

Don’t let the Thompson Twins intro scare you off. ‘Gonna get her’ by Psychic Twin is gonna get you. No doubt about that. Even if a tad poppy I am sure you’ll appreciate it, and definitely dig the gorgeous video.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Between the foreign textures of surrealism and nostalgia, Puta De Cava synthesizes hypnotic guitar lines and seductive vocal melodies to create an experimental soundscape. The group incorporates psychedelic post-rock and art-rock elements as well as middle eastern influence into the song-writing process.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

H&E is a project spearheaded by Steven Robertson, a young singer/songwriter from Boston, MA. Enrolling at Carnegie Mellon University in 2011, he was forced to split from the popular Boston-area band he had played with and began recording his own music. Along the way he's joined forces with various other artists, developing his own unique style of indie-folk-rock.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Teitur has never been afraid to experiment. In 2009, he told me that he was searching for challenges in music and new things to learn in order to feel closer to his own music. Four Songs is perhaps first and foremost that feeling of being closer.

All four songs have been recorded in Tórshavn on the Faroe Islands in the new Studio Bloch, owned by Teitur’s long time sound engineer, Jonas Bloch Danielsen. And for the first time, Teitur has recorded solo with no backing musicians.

With the opening song and single Home, Teitur has taken full advantage of the recording circumstances. The introless melancholy piano anthem seems to suck the listener right into the small studio built into the surrounding rocks where presumably “Home is the sound of the birds early in the morning”.

Unfortunately, the eerie intensity of Home seeps out the moment the re-recording of Poetry & Aeroplanes (originally recorded as the title song for Teitur’s debut album from 2003) begins. It’s a bit slower and less polished than the original recording but doesn’t really add anything new to the song.

Like Poetry & Aeroplanes, Jailhouse Gumbo Jones and She lives in the North are guitar based. Both songs, particularly the latter, have a hint of af Nick Drakesque feel but without quite the same intimacy and intensity of Home or of the late Englishman.

Four Songs is an interesting sneak peek into the direction that Teitur could be taking his music next. It’s intimate and warm even with the cold Atlantic tapping on the door. It’s just too bad that three of the four songs are guitar based when he currently sounds more at home at the piano.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

"For their seventh album, Bend Beyond, Woods got dark. It’s not that they weren’t dark before—when you really get in there and listen, Jeremy Earl is singing about some heavy stuff, but it’s hidden under his gorgeous falsetto and sometimes obtuse lyrics. On Bend Beyond, though, Earl and company fully embrace that darkness. Album opener “Bend Beyond,” has long been a jammy live staple, but here it’s compact and tight with a stuttered guitar line and a world-ending collision of instruments. Meanwhile “Is It Honest” jangles along happily until you notice Earl is in a more destructive zone than the bright music initially suggests, singing It’s so fucking hard to see as both a form of comfort and an act of despair. Instrumentally, Bend Beyond is certainly the most full Woods record yet, guitars weave and bubble across peppy drumming, but lyrically Earl is at his most direct and spare. While previous albums sounded like they went directly from Earl’s brain to tape with minimal outside interference, Bend Beyond is lush and full-bodied, the work of a band in perfect, heavy harmony. Listening to the record as a whole, it feels like the most daring leap Woods has made yet: It captures the band’s live intensity, but keeps the intimate sadness that made them so great in the first place."- Sam Hockley-Smith

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Australian artist Ben Smith’s “The Influence. Leonard Cohen consoles Nick Cave” depicts, with both wit and affection, the two melancholic bards as guru and student, father and son, ventriloquist and dummy, sharing the blood of Jesus and the fruit of knowledge.

Friday, September 21, 2012

A young Leonard Cohen explores the roots of his poetry with CBC-TV host Adrienne Clarkson. In this excerpt from Take 30, Cohen rejects the notion of artistic posterity and says, Im not interested in an insurance plan for my work. From 1966...

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

With a collection of more than 50 monumental sculptures, the Musée plein air de Lachine is one of Canada’s largest contemporary sculpture garden. Visit on foot or by bike and discover major works by artists such as André Fournelle, Michel Goulet, David Moore and Bill Vazan.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Despite ending sourly, The North is a welcome return to form. Stars have long been titans of indie-rock, releasing several great albums, now including this one. If this album is any indication, The Five Ghosts was simply an unfortunate misstep, but perhaps a necessary excursion. They got the sullen, quiet album out of their systems, and returned with full force. Now let’s dance.

"Transcendental Youth is full of songs about people who madly, stupidly, blessedly won’t stop surviving, no matter who gives up on them.

I can report that it is a very good album and has many more instruments on it than his early cassette tapes, including Peter Hughes on bass, Jon Wurster on drums, and, for the first time, a full horn section. And all of this makes a very joyous noise."

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

For Miles Kurosky, former leader of indie rock heroes Beulah, the nearly six years since the demise of the San Francisco-based band have been the best and worst of times. The best: Miles married the woman he met during the final Beulah tour, wrote the most personal and sophisticated music of his career, and recorded his first-ever solo album, The Desert of Shallow Effects.

I used to think that being alone would somehow simplify my life
But I really know myself and I know I'm going miss tonight
Talking on the telephone or having all the postage paid
Will never make me feel as good as walking on those river banks

Laughing like two little kids sitting in the back of class
The only thing that's on my mind is how to make this moment last
So I pulled my camera out and aimed it at your smiling face
All the while we hear the sound of our time ticking away

I used to think that being in love would somehow complicate my life
But I really know my heart and I can hear yours beat with mine
Pounding on piano keys and strumming those old copper strings
Will always make me feel like you're standing right there next to me

Singing like two little kids waiting for the rain to pass
The only thing that's on my mind is how to make this moment last
So I pulled my feelings out and left them in your travel case
All the while we hear the sound of our time ticking away

If I was a rich man I would bring my friends along
We'd move up to the mountains and record a hundred songs
But since my wallet's empty and I have these lines to sing
Just know that I will see you all when I close my eyes and dream

I will see you Joseph with that child light in your eyes
Standing in the moonlight staring up at all the stars
We'll be with Piana as she plays those organ keys
And we'll all become kids again and laugh out loud until our hearts are free

Career Culture is a tale of discovery, though it’s not necessarily the one you’d expect. The album’s arch was intended to portray Whetro’s journey from the lonely confines of Indiana’s industrial wasteland to the greener grasses of creativity, marriage and Madison, Wisc.; but his saga loses traction when paired up against his band’s own self-discovery that fuses both. Their sound is undeniably muscular and propulsive, but on Career Culture they litter enough lightweight moving parts to keep things from becoming too cumbersome.

Icarus Himself had always been an outlet for individual exploration. Initially conceived as a solo project for National Beekeepers Society’s Nick Whetro, the guitarist eventually left and disbanded his old group to focus solely on producing his brand of sample-laden guitar rock.

Life In Film are one of our long time recommended bands. They are a four-piece from London consisting of Samuel Fry, Micky Osment, Edward Ibbotsonand Dominic Sennétt.

The band have self-released a couple of songs in the past few years. On August 20th they finally released their debut EPNeedles & Pins, the title track of which is available as a free download from the soundcloud player at the bottom of this post.

The work of Angel Olsen is entirely her own: a raw, glowing sound that stands out now just as much as it did in 2010. It's an emotional stew with Angel's robust voice up front, bold and engaging, coming out of the background, aching to be heard. With the help of Emmett Kelly (The Cairo Gang) behind the board and playing throughout the songs, Half Way Home is a natural progression showcasing the wondrous sounds of a songwriter with such a voice that is rarely found.